Simple Match Fishing Forum

i watched hughes fishfight last night i could believe what i saw half of all fish caught in the north sea are thrown back dead i couldn't believe the European governments attitude towards the problem its outrages everything we stand for specially after watching the program before on the humans around the world and there polite to stay a live 

take a look www.fishfight.net and sign up if you want 

fishermen throwing back cod just because they were fishing for bass[thats the law you are licensed only for that species on the license it happened to be bass] beautiful fish thrown back DEAD and not just one or two how long does it take for a cod to grow to double figures 

Agree with you entirely, Joff. I was gobsmacked I think the skippers were so ashamed of the waste, yet it was good to hear them say they would prefer to have a set time to fish and bring in everything they catch, thus avoiding discard.
I read somewhere that most of the British skippers would be happier fishing alternate months of the year, and selling all they catch. There fuel costs would go down, maintenance costs would go down etc. etc. and they would still earn enough money to pay the crew.
I will be signing up to the campaign

Me too Joffie, worst thing we ever did, joining the EU.
I now only vote for any party which pledges to come out of it, although I know it wont happen even if they get in!!

i think the Americans fishing policies are better where they have seasons or fish for one species over a set time period

By Catch’ Fish Sales On The Up Following TV Series


Sales of less popular species of fish have taken off following the Channel 4 Fish Fight series of programmes.

The Guardian reports that shoppers are now turning to coley, dab, mussels, squid and sardines after species were championed in the TV series by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's, who is also the newspaper’s food writer.
Greenpeace, however, has urged some caution, stating that the increase could be just the ‘Delia effect’ at work rather than a concentrated effort by the British public to eat more responsible. Greenpeace said it wants to study more sales reports before coming to a firm conclusion. It adds that highlighting the discards issue was great, but it was only one part of a larger story about fish.
But Sainsbury's, Britain’s largest fish retailer, has reported that sales of "by-catch" from its fresh fish counter had been "promising" overall, while sales of pollack had leapt by 167% week on week.

It said customers had responded well to the fish featured in Jamie Oliver's programmes with sales of British and MSC-certified mackerel up 60 per cent and mussels up 16 per cent. Sales of its sustainable "line and pole caught" canned tuna increased by 17 per cent over the last week, while sales of organic salmon grew by 16 per cent and normal salmon sales remained unchanged.
According to the Guardian, Tesco said it had seen an increase in sales of between 25 and 45 per cent for fresh sardines, coley, brown crab, sprats and whiting in the week since the first programmes. It said in a statement: "We sell around 40 species of fish on our fresh counters and our staff are trained to advise customers on trying new varieties. Sales of fresh cod, herring, mussels, mackerel and canned tuna also increased compared to last week."
Both Asda and Marks & Spencer have said they too have seen more public interest in less well known species increase since the programmes went out.